Permian High School teacher Ramon Rivera has formed a Spanish Honor Society at the campus to give students some notice who might not normally get it.
There are 24 students in the group. Because of COVID-19, they have accepted sophomores through seniors. They have to be in Spanish III or above.
“They do have to have a good GPA, at least 3.0. They have to fulfill the requirements, as well. Community service is also a requirement. They complete 15 hours per year,” said Rivera, who chairs the Languages Other Than English department.
They decided to form the society because it offers another respected Honor Society to students. It also makes scholarships available to them and grows the subject area.
Rivera said he contacted the Honor Society and got all the requirements and bylaws directly.
“We want to get as much exposure to the students to get more … academic highlights. That’s one of the major reasons why we did it because we want to highlight more students that otherwise probably wouldn’t get recognized … We want to make it special for these students to have other opportunities that otherwise we might have not been able to create …,” Rivera added.
He said it was kind of tough to pick members.
“We made announcements, so it’s basically the students took their own initiative to register, complete an application form. I looked for the ones that are eligible. I sent invitations to all those. And there was quite a bit, but very few who actually decided to join the honor society,” Rivera said.
The requirement is to meet once a month. But they met once a week before the induction ceremony.
Rivera meets with the honor society board, which is all students, twice a month.
Between meetings, he said, members work on their community service hours and events that they are working on.
Victor Rondon, a 16-year-old junior and member of the honor society, is from Cuba.
Rondon’s first language is Spanish, but he is still learning more about it.
“It’s awesome,” he said.
Rivera said Rondon has been here two years and he is one of Rivera’s Advanced Placement students.
“He’s doing really well,” Rivera said.
Paulina Uribe, a 17-year-old senior, is secretary of the society.
“The thing is that even though I know there’s a large Hispanic community here in Odessa, I guess it was … an opportunity for me to learn about different cultures,” Uribe said.
She added that there are Cubans and Colombians in the group and she has learned about their cultures. Uribe said there are also students in the group who aren’t Hispanic, but wanted to learn more about the Mexican culture, for example.
Being an upcoming first-generation college student, Uribe said she also has gotten a scholarship through the society.
“… It was probably one of the best decisions that I’ve made in my high school years,” she added.
Uribe said the group is a community.
“… We didn’t really know these people until this year and we’ve been able to learn a lot about each other,” she said.
She added that it’s a good community to be part of.
“The people in there, they’re very caring. They’re very accepting, and even though not all of us are Hispanic, we have people in there that really appreciate the culture. They appreciate the language mostly.”
Sixteen-year-old junior Said Alvidrez heard about the honor society and decided to join his sophomore year. He now serves as its president.
“So far, I like it. I’ve had a lot of fun. I’ve met a lot of people. We’ve done a lot of things,” Alvidrez said.
Sometimes, he said, they limit themselves to their own culture and community and sometimes ignore other cultures.
“ … I think there’s a lot to learn out there and sometimes we don’t see it,” Alvidrez said.
